Chapter 83 (1/2)
Pride of the Dwarves
Dwarves were a stubborn race.
That was also to say that their dispositions were stubborn of course, but they were also stubborn in the results of their work.
Consequently, they wouldn’t undertake work that they themselves couldn’t comprehend, but even so it would take time to complete even if they accepted it.
A report came from those dwarves. It said: “Furnace done, round up a mountain of mages and bring them here.”
In other words, it meant that magic would be used together with them forging the katana, but it wasn’t like they could simply just go out and gather mages.
Currently, Ogress was polis.h.i.+ng its golem soldier plan that had played a leading role in the former Manesh. Mages were necessary for that, but—
“Oh my, shall we go?”
—Guinevere herself was the one to propose it.
The steps they needed to take right now, although it’s magic, were more about the practical implementation of it than the theoretical side. Since Guinevere was going, that meant that a substantial part of the court would be going to the dwarven village as well.
However, the dwarves weren’t concerned with things like kings and queens coming to their village.
“And so, Carla absolutely can’t drink alcohol.”
They had to take precautions in advance. It wasn’t like dwarves were irrational, they probably wouldn’t make a pregnant woman drink alcohol.
Together with s.h.i.+zuna, Carla rode on a specially made suspended carriage.
Since Guinevere was riding on it as well, it was quite like a gathering of VIPs.
“So, what are you two hiding?”
Guinevere suddenly asked them a question. She turned her Dragon Eyes to s.h.i.+zuna.
“Eh, I-I’m not hiding anything.”
“There is something, but I can’t say it now.”
Unlike s.h.i.+zuna, Carla, her long-time acquaintance, answered her.
“Oh my? Does this secret have something to do with Ria by some chance?”
“It is related to Ria, so I will talk about it after talking with her.”
“Hmm? Well, so long as it doesn’t break our friends.h.i.+p.”
It sounded insincere, but Guinevere felt lonely.
In particular, not getting between friends was an emotion burden for her. It was a childhood trauma.
Defended by golem soldiers, the group faced the dwarven village. Just then, Irina joined them.
It appeared that Maal sent them a letter by blasting it down the road with Irina in her orichalc.u.m armor on Rudolph’s back.
“Onee-chan!”
With a bang, Irina embraced Ria while holding onto the letter from Maal.
“… What!?”
Seeing the letter’s contents, Ria clenched her fist.
“Irina, is this true?”
“Yeah~”
In the letter, it said that Maal was getting married.
The groom was her childhood friend who had partic.i.p.ated in the recent war.
“Uuu~aaah~”
On Matsukaze’s back, Ria suffered.
She’d somehow wound up becoming a queen, so she wasn’t able to easily partic.i.p.ate in her friend’s wedding.
“Fio~, prepare a present to give her. Food would be great if possible, I’ll write a letter.”
It felt like her friends were all getting hooked up. Gig was also about to be the marriageable age for an ogre here soon…
“Ah~, maybe I should have a proper wedding with Carla…”
If she didn’t properly explain the Dragon’s Bloodline, Carla’s child would end up being treated as illegitimate.
Even if it was something that should be a happy thing, her troubles just kept on increasing.
*
The night on the day after they reached the dwarven village, the four were finally able to have their meeting.
Ria, Carla, s.h.i.+zuna, as well as the dragon, Irina.
There, Carla quickly explained that she had sprouted the manly feature and mated with s.h.i.+zuna.
(Hmm.)
Ria thought about it. a.s.suming that s.h.i.+zuna was pregnant, that wasn’t the problem. If it was Carla’s child, she’d love it as though it were her own.
The problem was why she wasn’t able to do it herself when they had done it.
Seeing Ria lost in thought, s.h.i.+zuna felt uneasy. Simply put, she’d cheated on her.
However, Ria didn’t care about that.
“Carla and s.h.i.+zuna’s child is the same as mine. Don’t worry. However…”
Ria’s expression changed and she scowled at Carla.
“The next time this happens, I’ll be watching. Rather, I’ll be joining you.”
“Understood.”
“Understood what!?”
s.h.i.+zuna’s shout echoed through the night.
“Rather, how about we do it now?”
“I don’t mind, but…”
“She’s pregnant! Don’t strain her body!” [1]
As something rare, s.h.i.+zuna’s opinion was actually accepted.
*
Since they’d let the dwarven village know they were coming this time, the head foreman as well as the formal actually came out to great Ria and her group.
The head foreman looked at Carla and spoke.
“You’re a beauty for a human. Whose bride are you?”
“Mine.”
The head foreman s.h.i.+fted his attention to Ria, who’d responded immediately.
“… Humans have marriages between women?”
“No, I’m a special case. By the way, I have another bride, and a fiance.”
“I see.”
The dwaf quickly let go of the topic and consented.
“Well, it’s fine. Now come and take a look, what do you think of this fellow?”
As for what the head foreman took Ria to, it was a semi-spherical furnace in the center of the village.
“… That’s… amazingly big.”
Let alone weapons, it looked huge enough to produce a giant s.h.i.+p’s deck.
“Umu, we needed a furnace like this to process the dragon fang. Moreover, it’s not just a furnace.”
The dwarves had started researching something related to a furnace that could be called a G.o.dly furnace.
It started out normally at first, they made a furnace from heat-resistant bricks, but it wasn’t able to perfectly resist heat.
A temperature of that level wasn’t able to process the dragon fang.
So next, they tried a mithril furnace. Since mithril could be given magic enhancements, it could withstand even higher temperatures.
But even so, it had its limits. The mana wasn’t able to hold out as they turned up the heat to process the dragon fang.
So they were left with two choices: orichalc.u.m and hihiirokane. [2]
Orichalc.u.m was a ridiculously strong metal in addition to being good against heat. Hihiirokane wasn’t too strong, but it was the best material for endowing with magic.
But even so, they weren’t enough against the heat needed to process the G.o.d dragon’s fang.
And so the dwarves took out their last resort. First off, they made a made a building of heat resistant bricks outside with a large scaffolding frame. Coating the inside of that with orichalc.u.m, followed by hihiirokane, they made areas that could produce heat directly in the furnace.
For fuel, they used charcoal from the world tree. They lacked enough with just that to be the fuel, so they planned to supplement it with magic. [3]
“Raising the temperature inside the furnace without raising the temperature of the furnace itself. It’s difficult.”
Such a feat could be done with hihiirokane.
“However, that requires a lot of mages…”
And thus they needed Manesh’s mages to be mobilized.
“Looks like it’ll be pretty hard…”
Ria said it like it was someone else’s problem, but it was to make her weapon from the G.o.d dragon’s fang. As a G.o.dslaying weapon, it could be called a sacred treasure.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that all of the dwarves in the neighboring areas had gathered in order to make it. Moreover, they had only built the furnace needed to make the weapon.
“Well then, let’s go~”
“Ka~y”
The ones to put the fire into the furnace were Guinevere and Irina. The charcoal made from the world tree ignited splendidly, easily causing the furnace’s temperature to exceed several thousand degrees.
However, even that still wasn’t enough.
“It’s my turn now.”
Carla began chanting. Simultaneously, countless mages began chanting cooling magic.
“Thermonuclear Darkness Exploding h.e.l.l.”
A flame of darkness filled the furnace.”
Ria put the fang into it with her bare hands.
The heat gradually tenderized the fang’s form. When she took it out, the fang was shaped into a katana with a mallet.
It was a specially made mallet using a mixture of putting orichalc.u.m into adamantium. Once it hit the fang several times, it lost its shape.